Category: Decals
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Yuron – Yurown Design Bureau

This is the new decal printing company that I have started to use now that every other specialist firm has decided to pack it in. I can look at Scalemates all day and see what once was printed, but as far as being able to actually get the sheets…? I might as well be asking…
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Lockheed CF-104 – Part Three – Cold Lake

The pattern for 702 is a photo of an interceptor in the early 60’s parked on the hardstand at Cold Lake CFB in Alberta. This is a front-line air defence base as well as a training and exercise area. It protects the rest of Canada from Edmonton… The scheme at the time featured plain polished…
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Sukhoi Su-2 – Part Four – The Green Meanie

I must record my admiration for the box art of this ICM product. I was never going to be able to do the weathering or modulating that is shown on the package, but the slightly yellow tinge to the Russian green was what made it really special. I was also grateful that the designers didn’t…
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Fairey Swordfish Mk I – Part Four – Splish Splash

If I was a kid in a bathtub I would be sorely tempted to play battleships with this Fairey float plane – probably to its detriment. As it is, I will have to think up some way of simulating water to display it – and that is a tough thing to do. The final result…
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SPAD XIII – Part Four – Rickenbacker’s Ride

The historic enthusiasts of WW1 can make of Eddy Rickenbacker what they will. His 22 aerial victories and 4 balloons downed are not the numbers that rival other aces, but he survived till the 1970’s and that was a definite win for him. The SPAD appears from other accounts not to have had quite the…
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Ilyushin IL-2 – Part Four _ Winter At Uszhitmi

Uszhitmi Air Base is what is known in Russia as a winter wonderland. It’s the place that they send people who have been exiled from Siberia. Thus we see the Ilyushin IL-2 sitting on the tarmac on a bright day in midsummer. You can tell it’s summer as they have not put the snow skis…
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Curtiss SBC-4 – Part Three – The Bad Bargains

The French paid through the nose for the Curtiss SBC-4 Helldivers. They were compelled to pay in gold bullion hauled to the USA by the aircraft carrier BÉARN, then forced to load them in Nova Scotia after they were towed over the international border, then forced to abandon them in the West Indies when metropolitan…
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F-15 Eagle – Part Three – Baz

Not Bazza – this is not an Australian fighter. Baz, as in Hebrew. One of the couple of dozen of this type the IDF flies. The tail markings were initially meant to be two red triangles inside and an eagle on the outer but the home printing proved difficult – they were impossible to actually…
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Hillson Praga Air Baby – Part Four – It Was A Good Idea At The Time…

Plywood wing, tube-frame fuselage, tiny 4-cylinder engine. What could possibly go wrong? Well you have to hand it to Hillson Praga. They were stylish. The little Air Baby looks good from many angles, and if the history of the type in Australia is to be believed, the three examples that got here were successful. Part…
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Hillson Praga Air Baby – Part Three – See What You Get When You Listen To Yourself

Particularly when it is the voice of experience and has arrived at wisdom through previous bad decisions. The Australian civil registration code on this plane is on clear decal film – the sort that the Czechs do well. The sheet is finely-printed and seems to be in register, but I know from past jobs that…
